In what has been dubbed “the 7UP case,” a majority of the Supreme Court of Canada ("SCC") has ruled in Thibodeau v Air Canada, 2014 SCC 67, that Michel and Lynda Thibodeau are not entitled to a damage award that would have required Air Canada to take steps to ensure compliance with the Official Languages […]
A recent Ontario Superior Court ruling has the potential to have a serious impact on evidence law. The medical malpractice suit has sparked conversations among lawyers throughout Ontario and across Canada and has prompted civil litigators to ask what meets the test of allowable communication with their expert witnesses.
The recent Ontario Court of Appeal (“ONCA”) decision in Matheson v Lewis, 2014 ONCA 542 [Matheson], held that an unmodified all-terrain vehicle (“ATV”) owned by a farmer and used in farm operations does not fall within the Highway Traffic Act, RSO 1990, c H.8 (“HTA”) exception for “self-propelled implement of husbandry”, and must be insured while […]
On November 14, 2014, the Supreme Court of Canada (“SCC”) will hold a hearing for the appeal of Her Majesty the Queen v Mark Edward Grant [Grant]. The main issues the SCC will address are what the test should be for admitting evidence relating to a third party suspect that is unknown and what the […]
This summer in R v Quesnelle, 2014 SCC 46, the Supreme Court of Canada held that police occurrence reports that relate to complainants or witnesses in sexual offence cases, and that are not directly related to charges an accused is facing, are subject to the Mills regime. As such, these records may only be released […]
Part XX.1 of Canada's Criminal Code, RSC 1985, c C-46 [the Code], fundamentally altered the way a criminally accused person with a mental illness engages with the criminal justice system. This comprehensive new structure was a response to cases like R v Swain, 1991 1 SCR 933, in which Parliament recognized the need for a new statutory regime sensitive to the […]
In R v ADH, [2013] 2 SCR 269, the Supreme Court of Canada ("SCC") articulated its position on the requisite fault element for the offence of child abandonment. While the SCC unanimously held that the accused in the case should be acquitted, it was split (5:2) on whether mens rea should be assessed subjectively or objectively. […]
In Ontario (Community Safety and Correctional Services) v Ontario (Information and Privacy Commissioner), 2014 SCC 31 [CSCS v IPC], the Supreme Court of Canada (“SCC”) was asked to interpret the interaction between the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act, RSO 1990, c F31 [FIPPA] and Christopher’s Law (Sex Offender Registry), 2000, SO 2000, […]
In R v Sipos, 2014 SCC 47 [Sipos], the Supreme Court of Canada ("SCC") unanimously concluded that the new evidence presented by James Peter Sipos to the Ontario Court of Appeal ("ONCA") did not place the appeal “in that exceptional category in which the evidence is sufficiently compelling that it demands appellate intervention” (Sipos, para […]
Earlier this year, Justice Wagner provided a concise and well-reasoned answer to an interesting question: Having operated a business for a decade in violation of a zoning bylaw, does a company have an acquired right of non-compliance? In Immeubles Jacques Robitaille inc v Québec (City), 2014 SCC 34, Wagner J. found that a business is not […]